Nicholas Gerard-Larson, a senior on the 2009 Milwaukee men's soccer team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. Today is his third blog entry.
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It’s weeks like these that make me feel twice my age. I’ll walk up a flight of stairs and it sounds like someone jumping on those sheets of soft, plastic packaging used to protect valuables. Each ascending stair is greeted by a pronounced snap or crack. Normally, this noise is oddly satisfying, especially when you’re the one lightly popping the little bubbles on the sheets. But when your bones begin making these sounds it serves as a fitting and accurate testament to the heightened activity they’ve recently been put through.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not complaining. I’ve been through this feeling of temporary, accelerated aging before ... many times in fact. However, every preseason it seems to get more distinct and inauspiciously more permanent. The wear and tear is in many ways unavoidable, since we rapidly need to prepare our bodies for the fast approaching regular season. Over the years I’ve utilized several effective techniques to slow this inexorable aging process. Hydration remains one of the seminal practices to avoid exhaustion, overheating, and cumulative fatigue. Eating a well-balanced diet, high in protein, fiber, and fruits and vegetables also greatly aids the body in recovery and reconstruction. (Wow, this sounds like some mandatory dietary explanation on those cereal commercials.) Ice baths, with their initial pangs of stabbing chills leading to that blissful numbness bordering on slight warmth, suggestive of the early stages of hypothermia, comprehensively invigorate the lower limbs. Individual ice bags also often soothe acutely sore areas of the body and I’ve seen some players, Nkuti (Ndely) in particular, with a veritable multitude of plastic bags strapped onto various injuries.
This year’s training schedule differs from most other years in that we have our second sessions very late at night. We eat as a group around five and then rest a few hours before reporting to training at eight or eight-thirty. While this allows us to avoid the heat and humidity, it does make for some fairly late nights. It’s the price we need to pay in order to train on turf, so few players are complaining. These practices tend to create an atmosphere of heightened urgency and emphasis. Playing under lights, with the darkness thick and enclosing, establishes a far more radiant and almost claustrophobic arena. The sounds of practice become sharp, more emphatic, and surreal. Once you get over the initial tiredness of practicing at this hour, your body responds with a growing sense of purpose, a realization somewhere along the lines of, “Well, what the hell, I’m out here anyway so why not make this good?”
Our second exhibition was played at home and featured a number of similarities with the first game. Our opponent, Wisconsin-Whitewater, is a Division III program, but one that is consistently competitive at both the regional and national level. We started out the first half with some good movement and passing, yet we allowed ourselves to stoop into Whitewater’s slower speed of play and nervous, erratic possession. Despite having far more dangerous chances, we found ourselves down 1-0 at half. The second half saw revitalized movement and an increased sense of urgency, resulting in two unanswered goals within a period of 38 seconds. (Eric) Frazier converted a penalty kick and (Zach) Funk blasted another goal past the Whitewater goalie to give us a 2-1 lead. The score stood the rest of the half, giving us another slim and well-deserved victory.
Later in the week we played our final exhibition against a very strong alumni team. This game is always a good test, since our program has seen a multitude of players ascend to the professional levels all across the country and globe. We showed signs of improvement in terms of defensive shape and transition. However, a few mistakes in our defensive third hurt us in the long run. The alumni team, with their greater collective experience, adeptly moved the ball with speed and consistency. A penalty kick against us in the first half, coupled with two unanswered goals in the second, left us 3-0 down before Abe Gibbons put us on the scoreboard. The game ended in a 3-1 loss, yet we made important improvements in organization and transitioning, both on offense and defense.
We always have an annual barbeque at Doc Middleton’s house during preseason and this year’s meal was another delightful (and tasty) experience. Doc and his family graciously invite thirty starving, worn-out individuals into their house and provide us with an amazing spread of burgers, brats, salad, and deserts. It’s a refreshing relief from our regular, rather mundane diet and helps nourish our depleted, calorie-craving bodies.
Unsurprisingly, our last preseason practice began under discouraging weather conditions. We ran from our locker room north about a mile to Shorewood through a steadily increasing drizzle. The night air was cool and dense, and the wind picked up as we reached the white glow of the stadium lights. It looked and felt as if it might snow. The rain was coming down in slow, compact clouds of condensed moisture, almost like a visible and perpetually forming dew. We were already soaked from the run, but seeing the rain illuminated under the glaring lights made the wetness that much more tangible.
Despite the slick field conditions and drenched clothing plastered against our chilled frames, the practice was a success. Once you accept the feeling of total and unavoidable saturation as your body’s normal state, it isn’t difficult to focus on defensive transitions or switching the point of attack. In fact, you begin to relish the turbulent elements around you, almost wishing for some new form of chaotic interference from the heavens, like some twisted taunt to the Almighty.
We played a possession game for our warm-up and than progressed directly into 11 versus 11, starting out with smaller dimensions and steadily increasing the size up to a full field scrimmage. The slippery surface caused numerous passes to skid out of bounds and succeeded in upending several players making moves too aggressive for such conditions. The level of play may not have been pretty, but it certainly was honest and dynamic. Exhausted, sodden, and humbled by nature’s capabilities, we retired to the showers, happy to be sheltered and finished with another preseason.
